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Report of the survey on current opinions and practice of German Society for Gynecologic Endoscopy (AGE) members regarding the laparoscopic treatment of ovarian malignancies

  • Gynecologic Oncology
  • Published:
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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this survey was to assess the opinions of members of the German Society of Gynecologic Endoscopy (AGE) regarding the laparoscopic treatment of ovarian malignancies and current practice at their institutions.

Methods

Between February and October 2015, the AGE sent an anonymous online survey via mail to its members. The questionnaire solicited participants’ opinions about the laparoscopic treatment of ovarian cancers according to T stage and borderline tumors, and information about current practice at their institutions. Participants were also asked their opinions on currently available data on this issue.

Results

Of 228 AGE members who completed the survey, 132 (58%) were fellows or attending physicians and 156 (68%) worked at university hospitals or tertiary referral centers. Most [212 (93%)] respondents stated that < 10% of all ovarian cancer cases were currently treated laparoscopically at their institutions. Most participants indicated that T1 (a, b, c) tumors [145 (64%)] and ovarian borderline tumors [206 (90%)], but not T2 [48 (21%)] or T3/4 [9 (4%) ovarian tumors] should or could be treated laparoscopically. One hundred seventy-two (75%) participants considered currently available data on this topic to be insufficient and 152 (66%) stated that they would take part in a clinical trial assessing a laparoscopic approach to T1/2 ovarian cancer.

Conclusion

According to this survey, to the opinion of the majority of AGE members, laparoscopy might be a considerable option for the treatment of early ovarian malignancies and borderline tumors and should be evaluated further in future studies.

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Funding

The study has been sponsored by the German Society for Gynecologic Endoscopy (AGE) (Grant number 01/15).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Saarland University Hospital, Kirrbergerstraße 100, 66421, Homburg, Germany

    Julia Caroline Radosa, Pascal Albert Schweitzer, Ingolf Juhasz-Boess & Erich-Franz Solomayer

  2. Department of Gynecology, Agaplesion Diakonie Hospital Kassel, Herkulesstraße 34, 34119, Kassel, Germany

    Marc Philipp Radosa

  3. Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Agatharied Hospital, Sankt-Agathastrasse 1, 83734, Hausham, Germany

    Stefan Rimbach

Authors
  1. Julia Caroline Radosa
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  2. Marc Philipp Radosa
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  3. Pascal Albert Schweitzer
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  4. Ingolf Juhasz-Boess
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  5. Stefan Rimbach
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  6. Erich-Franz Solomayer
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Contributions

JCR: project development, data collection, manuscript writing. PAS: data management, data analysis. MPR: project development, data analysis. IJ-B: data management. SR: manuscript editing. EFS: project development, manuscript editing.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Julia Caroline Radosa.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

This article does not contain any studies with patients or animals performed by any of the authors.

Informed consent

Informed consent was given from all individual participants included in the study by responding to the questionnaire.

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Radosa, J.C., Radosa, M.P., Schweitzer, P.A. et al. Report of the survey on current opinions and practice of German Society for Gynecologic Endoscopy (AGE) members regarding the laparoscopic treatment of ovarian malignancies. Arch Gynecol Obstet 297, 1255–1264 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00404-018-4709-5

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